City proposes tax increase just over five per cent

Home owners in Saskatoon can expect to pay higher property taxes this year. The City of Saskatoon has released its proposed budget for the year. It includes a proposed tax hike of 5.17 per cent – which works out to about $6.80 more in taxes every month for an average home.

It also includes a dedicated one per cent tax to fix Saskatoon’s roads.

However, that dedicated road tax amounts to just over 1.5 million dollars more a year, which falls well short of what’s needed. A recent report found the city needs to spend about 25 million dollars a year on road maintenance, and even with the tax increase, the city is only spending about 11 million dollars on road maintenance.

The proposed budget also includes planning for a new north commuter bridge.

The operating budget totals about 386 million dollars. Adding in capital spending brings the total of 812 million dollars.

The budget now goes to council’s budget committee for debate, so the numbers presented Wednesday are not final.